81 Water Street, Strathfield South

81 Water Street, Strathfield South, 21 August 2024. Courtesy Strathfield Local Studies

Dotted throughout suburban Sydney are numerous cottages built with a shop or commercial premises attached. Many of these now stand empty. Often, but not always, they were corner stores – mixed businesses where locals could pick up their bread, milk or, in the case of children, lollies or an ice-block on a hot day.
81 (formerly 93) Water Street Strathfield South (formerly Belfield and Enfield) is one such property, built by the 1920s and used as a bakery with attached residence for much of its life. The property stands on part of Lot 5 of the original Clareville Estate, subdivided and offered at auction in May 1905. Many of these large lots were later subdivided again. Further information on the history of this area (formerly Belfield) can be found at: https://strathfieldheritage.com/buildings/belfield/

Clareville Estate subdivision plan, 1905. Courtesy National Library of Australia

Council’s earliest valuation records from the 1920s show that this property was owned by Robert Alfred Burns. He died in Elizabeth Bay, late of Enfield, aged 52, on 29 September 1927. Burns was a manufacturer who lived at Jointipore on Liverpool Road and had stood as a candidate in the west ward of Enfield Council in early 1914, although he was not elected. The property in Water Street remained part of his estate until the late 1940s. During this time it was leased and used as a bakery.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s the bakery was leased to Harold Leslie Naveau. Newspapers show that he came to the rescue when a firefighter was overcome by smoke while fighting a bushfire near Bankstown during January 1929.[1] However, in September of that year Naveau fined £10 at Burwood Court for having had ‘dirty premises’. ‘Inspector Moore, of Enfield Council, said he found the floors and walls caked with dirt, rubbish in the storeroom, mouldy bread, and dirty utensils. Trays covering pies and cakes were very dirty.’ [2] Another article reported on ‘lice in a quantity of almonds’ and that ‘A dog was sleeping near the oven, and there were two dirty children near the bakehouse.’[3]

Naveau may not have occupied the adjoining cottage as the 1930 electoral rolls list him at 163 Concord Rd Mortlake with the occupation of baker. The 1930 Sands’ Street Index lists him as a pastry cook at 93 Water Street, Enfield but by 1933 he had moved to Nowra where he also worked as a baker. (1933 electoral rolls). Naveau moved often. Electoral rolls list him in Woodstock (near Cowra) in 1934, Nowra again in 1937 and then the Newtown district from 1943 for about 20 years. By 1968 he was in Bellingen, in northern NSW and he died on 12 August 1977, aged 86 in Coffs Harbour.[4] His wife Margaret Ellen (Nellie) died at a private hospital in Strathfield in 1963.[5]

Council’s valuation records show that during the late 1940s 81 Water Street was purchased by baker, Reginald Albert Lancelot Carroll, who had served during WWII. He had married Mabel Scott in Orange in 1939. Carroll remained in Water Street until the 1970s and electoral rolls described him as a baker and pastry cook.

Perhaps long-time locals might remember the bakery in Water Street?

Google maps show that the most recent commercial use of the premises was for selling car alarms c.2008-2019.

This property was due to be auctioned on 24 August 2024 but does not appear to have been sold as yet.

 

By J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

[1] Sydney Morning Herald 10 January 1929 p.11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16522481

 

[2] Evening News 18 September 1929 p.14 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118992896

 

[3] Sydney Morning Herald 19 September 1929 p.10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16585443

 

[4] Sydney Morning Herald 13 August 1977

 

[5] Sydney Morning Herald 24 December 1963